This HOWTO will show how to convert an arcade stick that works for only one console to work with multiple systems. You can also take this opportunity to buy some quality arcade buttons to replace the stock ones.

Why an arcade stick?
I have an XBOX, Wii and PS3. My favourite console is the original XBOX. Once softmodded it is one heck of a machine. I can play hundreds of arcade games from the past on MAME-oX, FBA-XXX, and many others consoles like NES, SNES, Genesis. There are tons of native fighting games for it too.

I consider myself an old school gamer. I find myself playing more of the older games then the new ones. My first video game machine was an Atari 2600 and I grew up sticking coins into arcade machines. A gamepad just doesn’t do these games justice.

Why take a perfectly good fighting stick and shove an ancient PS1 gamepad inside it?

It’s really hard to find an arcade stick that works with more than one console these days. I wanted to have only 1 stick to work on all my systems because of space. The PS1 Dual Shock is one of the most popular gamepads ever made. It’s easy to find and is well documented. The PS1 Dual Shock is also one of the simpliest and has a lot of buttons.

There are lots of converters for the PS1 controllers to work with other systems like the PS3, 360, Gamecube, and XBOX. It’ll probably be compatible with future systems too granted someone makes converters for them.

Why not make your own from scratch?
An arcade stick is in a sense just a box with switches. Very simple. However, I’m not very crafty with wood since I don’t have the tools. I decided to just gut out a premade one from Hori since I had one lying around not used.

Why not use an X-Arcade works, it works with all systems too.
Those are just too big for my tastes. I need it compact. Also it costs a lot if you factor in all the converters for your systems.

You can use any current generation arcade stick and convert it to a PS1 compatible one. I chose to use my little utilized Hori Wii Fighting stick.

Let’s start.

I decided to go with a Hori Wii Fighting stick because that’s what I had at the moment.

The first thing is to find a PS1 controller and dismantle it except for the PCB and wiring. There are many revisions of the PS1 Dual Shock. The one I’m using is SCPH-1200 A (early revision). There’s H, M, etc. The best one to get are revision A (later) and M. Those actually require solderless connection points to the PCB. But if you can’t find those, an early A revision is easy to solder.

Next we open up the Hori stick and desolder its PCB from the buttons and chuck it in the trash.

Wire up the ground wires. I use black wires and daisy chain the ground wires to go to one common ground on the PS1′s PCB.

The black wires goes to the common ground connection.

Now all the signal wires connected to the PCB.

To strengthen the connections, I use hot glue.

The completed stick with a TAC PS1 to PS3 converter. This stick will now work with other consoles with converters

My next step would be to paint it, and put in arcade quality buttons from Sanwa. I’ve ordered them and should be putting them in soon.

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on Monday, January 26th, 2009 at 10:36 am and is filed under Gaming, HOWTO.
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